There are numerous systems, devices and methods for combining instrument sound pickup devices. Among these systems are manual and preset combination circuits.
Manual combination circuits have been used on instruments, such as, for example, electric guitars for many years. Advantageously, manual combination circuits are relatively inexpensive to manufacture and do not require any programming to combine the signals from various pickups. However, manual combination circuits entail several problems.
A first problem with manual combination circuits is that they are limited in number of combinations that a musician can memorize and/or access. Secondly, manual combination circuits are limited to the number of physical switches that can be placed on an instrument. For example, it would be impractical to have a hundred or more physical switches on an instrument to provide the equivalent number of combinations. Thirdly, manual combination circuits require physical rewiring that are cumbersome and require skills that the user often does not possess. Fourthly, if the switching combination is complex, the ability to change combinations with a manual combination circuit must generally be limited, to prevent the signal stream from being interrupted.
Preset combination circuits, by comparison, are more efficient because all of the combinations are permanently preset during the manufacturing process. Disadvantageously, however, permanently preset combination circuits limit the repertoire of the musician. The musician can only combine signals in the presets.
Therefore, there exists a need for a musical instrument switching system for combining and routing a plurality of audio and/or instrument sound pickup devices which avoids these problems in the prior art.